Penza, 22 March 2015. PenzaNews. The member of the Legislative Assembly of the Penza region Georgy Kamnev, first secretary of the Regional Committee of the Communist Party, has named the potential candidate for the gubernatorial elections scheduled for September 13, 2015, from the Communist Party.

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“We are now collecting the suggestions from our area committees. Almost all of them spoke out and gave several names. In my personal opinion, [State Duma deputy] Vladimir Alexandrovich Simagin should be the candidate, and I think he will be the one we will recommend,” Georgy Kamnev told PenzaNews agency on Sunday, March 22.

“I can say he is a real fighter, a devoted Party member with great election experience. I think Vladimir Alexandrovich will be able to hold a decent election campaign,” the speaker added.

He also stressed that there has not yet been a formal announcement of the CPRF candidate for the gubernatorial election, because the procedure is elaborate in all meanings of this word.

“We have two options. Either we recommend the candidate on our regional conference, or the Presidium of the CPRF central committee recommends him. The conference recommendation usually takes a lot of time: we must hold sessions first for primary, then area and city departments, and only then the conference itself will follow. We will be more likely to go the other way. We will petition for the Central Presidium to support our common decision on the basis of the documents we have already received from the primary and area departments of the Party. I think we will hold a plenary meeting of the regional committee on this question, and afterwards petition for the support of our candidate,” Georgy Kamnev explained.

Based on his words, the election program for the CPRF candidate is mostly ready, but its final form is still under discussion.

“It is practically ready in its general outline. We will make it more detailed, and I think we will present it in a shorter form by mid-May,” the Penza Communist Party branch leader added.

Answering a question from PenzaNews agency on ways of going through the “municipal filter,” Georgy Kamnev said his party will focus on working with self-promoted deputies.

“We looked through the list of deputies: there are many self-promoted people, and we rely on them to support our candidate,” he concluded.

As PenzaNews agency reported earlier, LDPR was the first Parliament party to name its potential candidates for the gubernatorial elections in the Penza region. The list, made public in March, includes the State Duma deputy Anton Ischenko, the Penza regional Party branch coordinator Mikhail Usov, the City Duma deputy Zhigansha Tuktarov, and the coordinator of the Kamenka area party branch Igor Sarantsev. According to public expectations, the name of the LDPR candidate for the gubernatorial elections will be announced in May.

In its turn, the Penza United Russia party branch began their gubernatorial election campaign on March 12 by electing Victor Rubtsov, vice-governor of the Penza region and United Russia party member, as the head of the regional party election board.

The ruling party has not yet named its candidate. However, there is a possibility it will be the current Penza region governor Vasily Bochkarev, who said he is not looking for a new job yet in January 2015, and had spoken of possibly taking part in the election.

However, during a press conference held in the roundtable hall of the Penza region government late on Thursday, March 19, the head of the region said he was considering candidacies of four people from the deputies of the Legislative Assembly and the City Duma who could potentially replace him.

On Saturday, March 21, Alexander Elatontsev, head of the Internal Policy and Mass Communications Department of the Penza region, held an extraordinary press conference for a special message. During the event, he explained the words of the governor Vasily Bochkarev about the potential gubernatorial candidates.

In particular, he stressed that Vasily Bochkarev never said anything about not taking part in the gubernatorial elections as a candidate during his March 19 press talk.

Alexander Elatonsev also added that Vasily Bochkarev’s decision to take part in the 2015 gubernatorial election will depend on three aspects: the political will of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, the state of economy of the Penza region, and the level of public trust.